GOP Group Pushed For Only Hard-Right Voices On ‘Voter Fraud’ Commission

While claiming in hollow fashion to want to “unite” all Americans, Republican President Donald Trump has made no bones about the fact that his administration represents the extreme right in the political spectrum.

One of President Trump’s insidious efforts to disenfranchise voters who do not support him is his creation of a “commission on election integrity,” which has the clear goal of bumping likely Democrat voters off the voting rolls. A recent email that was just brought to light that shows how other right-wing groups have been pressuring Trump’s White House to maintain its extreme political orientation.

Through a Freedom of Information Act request, the Campaign Legal Center discovered an email that a staff member of the right-wing Heritage Foundation sent in February to Trump’s administration indicating disappointment that President Trump was considering including Democrats and moderate Republicans on the “voter fraud” panel. The email expressly called for Trump to exclude “mainstream Republican officials and/or academics.” Wrote the Heritage Foundation employee in the email addressed to Jeff Sessions, “[Redacted] got a very disturbing phone call about the voter fraud commission that Vice President Pence is heading. We are told that the members of this commission are to be named on Tuesday. We’re also hearing that they are going to make this bipartisan and include Democrats. There isn’t a single Democratic official that will do anything other than obstruct any investigation of voter fraud and issue constant public announcements criticizing the commission and what it is doing, making claims that it is engaged in voter suppression. That decision alone shows how little the WHouse understands about this issue.”

The employee continued, “There are only a handful of real experts on the conservative side of this issue and not a single one of them (including [redacted]) have been called other than Kris Kobach, Secretary of State of Kansas. And we are told that some consider him too “controversial” to be on the commission. If they are picking mainstream Republican officials and/or academics to man this commission it will be an abject failure because there aren’t any that know anything about this or who have paid any attention to this issue over the years.” They later concluded by saying in sinister fashion, “I think you know from the white paper we sent you that based on our experience we have thought long and hard about what needs to be done.” Do you think this email makes it obvious what the true motivations of the “commission on election integrity” are?

On Tuesday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions spoke at Georgetown University Law Center. Sessions defended President Trump and his recent controversial remarks regarding NFL players who take a knee during...